Techmeme
September 25, 2020, 4:00 PM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Google to issue new guidelines emphasizing that developers must use Google's own billing service for in-app purchases and subscriptions in Play Store  —  - Google and Apple's 30% cut of purchases is under scrutiny  — Google to update developer rules to emphasize requirement
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Leaked email: Google informed its advertisers on Friday that it will block election ads referencing “the election, or its outcome” after polls close on Nov. 3  —  Google informed its advertisers Friday that it will broadly block election ads after polls close Nov. 3, according to an email obtained by Axios.
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Apple has agreed to allow Facebook to process payments for its paid online events feature via Facebook Pay, without taking a 30% cut, until December 31  —  Last month, Facebook introduced support for paid online events — and since many of the businesses offering those events have struggled during …
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Alphabet settles shareholder lawsuit over its handling of sexual harassment claims, agrees to eliminate mandatory arbitration and limit Google's use of NDAs  —  - Alphabet has reached a settlement with shareholders in a lawsuit alleging sexual misconduct mishandling and cover-up by executives …
Alex Heath / The Information:
Stan Chudnovsky, head of Messenger at Facebook, says Facebook has asked Apple for years to give users an option to make Messenger the default iOS messaging app  —  Facebook executives have sharply ramped up their criticism of Apple in recent months, contesting the iPhone maker's restrictions …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
The European Commission says it will appeal the July 2020 ruling that reversed the original $15B fine against Apple and Ireland over State Aid and taxes  —  It's not over until it's over for Apple and its ongoing tax headache in Europe.  Today the European Commission announced that it plans …
Kate Cox / Ars Technica:
Olivia Solon / NBC News:
A group of about 25 experts say they have formed the Real Facebook Oversight Board, a group to analyze and critique Facebook's content moderation decisions  —  Some of Facebook's most vocal critics are tired of waiting for its independent oversight board — so they're starting their own.
Nelson Bocanegra / Reuters:
Colombia-based delivery app Rappi has raised over $300M from T. Rowe Price and others  —  BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian all-purpose delivery app Rappi has raised over $300 million (£235.3 million) in a funding round that saw interest from T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc, among others, the company said on Thursday.
More: Contxto
Katharine Schwab / Fast Company:
Humane raises a $30M Series A led by Sam Altman and Lachy Groom, with Marc Benioff and others participating, to build some new kind of computing platform  —  Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno helped create some of Apple's biggest hits.  Now their startup Humane is at work on something ambitious—and mysterious.
More: FinSMEs and PR Newswire
Jessica Conditt / Engadget:
Amazon announces Luna cloud gaming service, going live in October for $5.99/month, with a gamepad and support for Fire TV, PC, Mac, iOS, and later for Android  —  Spoiler: It's not a native iOS app.  —  4m ago  —  Luna is what happens when you take the subscription model of Prime Video …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: ahead of public market debut on Sept. 30, Palantir has told investors that its shares could start trading at $10 apiece, valuing the company ~$22B  —  Bankers have told investors stock could start trading at around $10, sources say  —  Palantir Technologies Inc. is expected to fetch …
Janko Roettgers / Protocol:
Interview with Dantley Davis, Twitter's chief design officer, on building diverse and inclusive design teams in tech  —  When Dantley Davis worked as a designer at Netflix a few years back, he had an epiphany: For ages, “Star Wars” had been marketed as a sci-fi saga.  But what if it could also be a princess story?
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
Twitter says its test to prompt users to read articles before retweeting was a success, with users opening articles 40% more and sometimes opting not to retweet  —  Twitter's experiment to get people to actually read the content they're sharing is going so well the company plans to expand it to the platform at large “very soon.”
Sean Lyngaas / CyberScoop:
Facebook says it removed 200+ accounts Thursday that were associated with US election interference in the past, “including those involved in DC leaks in 2016”  —  Facebook on Thursday removed over 200 phony accounts and dozens of pages that originated in Russia and pumped …
Andrew Martin / Bloomberg:
CISA: a hacker accessed the network of an unnamed US federal agency using valid credentials for multiple users' Microsoft 365 accounts and domain admin accounts  —  An unnamed U.S. federal agency was hit with a cyber-attack after a hacker used valid access credentials, authorities said on Thursday.

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More News

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